Chocolate canola oil cake with cherry sauce

Recently, I saw a recipe for chocolate olive oil cake on the Smitten Kitchen website and I thought about making it; but, it didn't include eggs and used vinegar instead. Then I remembered seeing Nigella Lawson's version before, and it does include eggs.

As I don't have any particular need to bake a cake without eggs, I decided to try Nigella's chocolate olive oil cake. A cake with eggs is fairly standard, and that seemed like a more reliable option to take to a friend's flat for a dinner party. I made the recipe as written, but I used canola oil instead of olive oil as I always have it on hand.

However, the recipe doesn't include any type of frosting, which seemed a bit underwhelming for a gathering. So I decided to make a brandied cherry sauce topping instead. I also bought some cookies and cream ice cream to go with it (as the supermarket didn't have any canned whipped cream and some people don't like it anyway). Yum!